Today I was less impressed to open the curtains to a miserable grey looking day. I still donned my shorts, forever hopeful, as we went down for breakfast. Unfortunately sitting in the conservatory enjoying my beans on toast I realised it looked pretty cold and windy out there so had to change not only into trousers but also put on a jacket as we packed up to leave!
We dropped down into the village centre and picked up the Coast to Coast path taking us down to the lovely Catrake Force. The village today is a tiny collection of cottages with very small doors. At the height of the Lead Mining industry in the valley over 6000 people were resident here! Even all the original pubs in the village are gone, the last was closed over 50 years ago when a Temperance campaigning Methodist preacher bought it and turned it into a house! After a quick snap at the waterfall we crossed the river and picked up the path taking us higher up towards the ruined Crackpot Hall. There has been a building here since the 16th century. There have been many uses over the years including a hunting lodge, mining office and farmhouse. Unfortunately today the hall stands in ruins. I had all sorts of exciting ideas in my mind as to why the building may be called Crackpot but turns out its simply the viking for a deep chasm often the haunt of crows!
After finding the nearby cache we continued on our way up Swinner Gill to pick up the scramble up East Grain streams and waterfalls to reach the moor top. Here the weather really started to close in as the wind blew mist all around us. The path up East Grain was a good challenge and eventually we clambered out onto the grouse track across Gunnerside Moor surprising a passing grouse manager in his truck!
We followed the grouse track for a couple of km in very wet and windy conditions. Things got so bad I even needed my woolly hat! We then picked up a footpath marked by a couple of cairns and a couple of fellow walkers on the left hand side. This would take us past North Hush (an area which had been previously dammed and water released to wash away debris leaving ore bearing veins) and down into Gunnerside, dropping into the valley at the Blakethwaite Smelting Mill. This is a spot we’d been to a couple of times before on bike and on foot and despite the weather it looks as beautiful as ever in its own unique way.
Lead has been mined in Gunnerside since at least the 15th century but the busiest times were 17th to late 19th century. The ore was extracted, crushed at the dressing floor and then sent to be smelted. As the output in Gunnerside increased sharply in 1819 the new smelting mill was built at Blakethwaite and began smelting in 1821. The mill had two ore hearths fuelled with local peat and coal. The fumes were drawn into a flue that ran to a chimney on the crag above the mill. The building to the left is the remains of the smelting mill. The building on the right is the peat house built in 1820. The peat was cut from the moorland above and slid down the hillside on a peat slide then stacked under cover in the house.
At the mill we crossed the slab bridge and began the climb up the zig zag path that can be seen in the photo. The higher we climbed the windier it got and the mist really really started to close in around us. We left the other couple for dust at this point so we were on our own in the bleakness! We topped out on Friarfold Moor and made our way across the lunar section with very low visibility. Remarkably this turned out to also be the busiest section of the three days as we were passed by a number of bikers and walkers coming up! Lots of crazy people out on a Saturday!
Head down across the moor we eventually started to lose height and descended to meet the Old Gang track and begin our descent to Surrender Bridge. Again we’d walked and ridden this section before so werent too disappointed with the heads down in the weather approach to walking! We passed the Level House Bridge with its signpost – the last time we’d been here a grouse had sat giving us a perfect Famous Grouse photo – today it would have been blown off! Back in the 17th century a house, Level House, stood at this junction, the home of one of the early partners in the mining industry. This is long gone and the first real signs of building are a km later when we reached the old gang smelting mill area. Here we have a bit of everything – dressing floor complete with old machinary, level entrances, smelting mills (there were two on the site) and chimney and a large peat house on the hillside above. The site is preserved now as a listed building and is interesting to nose around and was a good sheltered spot to stop for lunch! Back in the 1930s a lot of the stone buildings were removed to build the methodist church in Muker.
From here we dropped to Surrender Bridge, cross the road and picked up the bridleway which would take us along a boggy track and down into the little village of Healaugh. We stopped in the village for a brief rest on a bench before picking up the final leg of our journey across the fields to Reeth. This was nearly the most treacherous part of the day as the fields contained mother sheep with lambs of various ages. I obviously got a little too close to one pair as I was stamped at by the mother! A quick retreat and I was extra cautious for the remaining mile into town! We arrived in Reeth and found our final B&B, The Laurels, very easily.
As we walked up to the front door we were greeted by our host who directed us to the back door / drying room entrance where two chairs were waiting for us to take our boots off in comfort. We were showed to our lovely room and settled in, concluding although all had been nice this was by far our favourite. We laid on the bed watching the dull day outside turn to a glorious sunny evening, at least we had amazing views to admire! I also popped out for some packed lunch supplies from the little post office as the butchers was closed up. There was limited choice but we wont starve! I was amazed to see boil in the bag Tees Valley meals for sale!
After watching the FA Cup Semi final (up to extra time) we head out on the town ready for a bouncing Saturday night in the Dales! We went to the recommended Buck Inn which was packed so went to try a couple of the others. None of the others seemed up to scratch so we returned to the Buck and waited for a table. It was worth the wait as we had a fantastic steak and Black Sheep pie followed by a great Mississippi Mud pie. Things did get a little confusing with our potato skins arriving after the main course and Mr T ending up with 2 bowls of ice cream!
We met the three ladies once again who scared me initially by telling us they’d finished really quick and spent mid afternoon in the pub drinking cider! We later found out that due to the weather they had decided to follow the lower gentle valley path from Keld to Reeth – this made me feel better!
The link to our route is here. A shorter 18.9km or 11.7 miles today, running total after 3 days of 62.2km or 38.6 miles.
Teesside Wanderings 
[…] We crossed the bridge and descended immediately onto the permissive path skirting the fields of Dales Bike Centre before reaching the road at Low Fremlington. A sharp left took us back to Reeth and up the cobbled climb beside the Laurels B&B we’d stayed in back in 2014 on the 3rd and final day of the Herriot Way. […]